


Not Just Skin Deep: “[We] do share a more profound bond”

by Dawnmoon76



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 04:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14609244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawnmoon76/pseuds/Dawnmoon76
Summary: “What?” His brother choked on his coffee.“You two should get married.” Sam repeated.“No, yeah, I heard you the first time.”Or the one where Sam ships it harder than the rest of us





	Not Just Skin Deep: “[We] do share a more profound bond”

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for use of mild language (Nothing worse than what’s heard in the actual show)
> 
> So, uh, I have no idea where in the timeline this would be so let’s just kind of pluck it out of there.
> 
> (Only requirement for where you want to plop it back down is that this is before the US had marriage equality (June 2015))
> 
> Not beta’d. Lemme know of any glaring mistakes (and I think all the pieces that need italizing are italized)

At first Sam left subtle hints. The TV left on to _Say Yes to the Dress_ and any network that played romantic anything.

Okay, so maybe not so subtle.

He got even less subtle as the months went by.

“ _What?_ ” His brother choked on his coffee.

“You two should get married.” Sam repeated.

“No, yeah, I heard you the first time.” Dean coughed a little more to get excess coffee out of his lungs. “But you don’t just spring something like that on a guy when he’s barely caffeinated.”

Sam briefly thought he should apologize but decided he was done with their longing looks. He thought it would be all good. All the unresolved sexual tension would be resolved and Sam wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. But noooo, now he has to deal with adorable longing looks. He’s seen his brother look at Cas’s hand, seen the stroking thumb. He’s seen Cas’s hand linger on Dean’s arm where the handprint used to be. He was sure he’s seen a shadow of a wing curl towards his brother. Cas understood the Western concept of marriage by now, especially with the hints Sam had been dropping.

“Just ask him. You guys were already an old married couple before you were officially together.”

“No, dude. It’s just—marriage really isn’t our thing.”

“We can just jump a few state borders and—“

“Enough, Sam. Besides, according to the government, Cas doesn’t exist.” Dean didn’t give Sam enough time to respond. He walked out of the room, leaving Sam alone.

He didn’t bring it up again, he did leave a few magazines out, but faced with Dean’s mounting frustration he backed off of that too.

~~~

“Hey Cas?” Dean asked one night as they were laying in bed. Cas didn’t need to sleep but enjoyed a meditative state during that time. They were both on their sides, facing one another.

“Yes Dean?” Despite being so close Dean didn’t make eye contact.

“Have you ever...” Cas waited patiently, giving Dean time to collect his thoughts. “I mean, you’re it for me Cas. There’s no one else. And Sam’s been bugging me about it and I hadn’t really thought about it but then it started to bug me—“

“Dean.” Cas smiled.

“Right, uh, marriage. You and me.” Dean felt like an idiot. _Nicely put dumbass._

Cas did his adorable eye squint and Dean was sure he would be tilting his head if he weren’t currently laying down. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

“No! Yes. I—I was rather asking what you thought about it. At first I figured what was the point. But then Sam kept making a big deal out of it and it just got under my skin.”

Cas was quiet for awhile. “Marriage can be a wonderful thing.” Pause. “But not entirely necessary. In Heaven there’s not really such thing as marriages. And those who do fall in love is usually with a human. They follow whatever wedding practices of their partner’s culture. But I think we’re far from traditional. I have no compelling need to get married in accordance to Western culture. But if you want to, I’d be happy to.”

Dean swallowed. He knew Cas and him were committed. But to hear that devotion said out loud. To hear that Cas was willing to marry him. Well, it made him love the angel even more.

Dean thought over his next words carefully. “I don’t think I want to. But maybe...maybe something else. Some other symbol.”

Cas smiled, making his eyes crinkle. Dean grinned in response. “I’d like that.”

They fell asleep not much later.

~~~

Sam squinted as his brother came into the room, whispering something to Cas, who shook his head, before shrugging and sitting down, opening one of the books in his pile.

A couple days later Cas did the same in the kitchen, before grabbing the pot and refilling Dean’s coffee.

He watched each exchange carefully. They’d whisper to one another, or sometimes he thinks Dean prays. As Cas would sometimes lift his head to disagree silently with whatever Dean had said. He wasn’t really sure what was going on. It wasn’t a fight. And neither seemed too disappointed when whatever they said got met with a shake of the head. A few got shrugs, one got a thoughtful head tilt from Cas.

Sam caught his brother look up from his reading before he glanced over to Cas. Sam can only assume he prayed because Cas looked thoughtful. Slowly, Cas started to nod, a smile growing on both their faces. After that they both returned to their books, like nothing happened.

~~~

After a couple of weeks of exchanging ideas they finally settled on something. Rings hand been a possibility, but Dean wasn’t too thrilled. While he had worn a ring for awhile, it gotten annoying. He either always had to wash the blood off of it and out of the grooves. Or he’d somehow catch it on something, or it would clink off the metal of his gun or knife, nearly costing him his ear as a ghost threw a knife his way.

Similarly, while he cherished the amulet Sam had given him it had, on numerous occasions, whacked him in the face in the middle of the fight. Sam always thought the split lip was due to the fight.

After that, there wasn’t much left. Even after giving google a quick search. Bracelets just didn’t seem right. And a lot of the other things would’ve made it felt too much like cultural appropriation.

It came to them one night, they were naked under the covers, Cas using Dean’s shoulder as a pillow. He started idly tracing the anti-possession tattoo before pausing.

“What about a tattoo? As our symbol.” Cas felt Dean hum.

“What would it be?”

“I’m not sure.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

A few days later Cas was reading when Dean’s voice rang through his head. He thought about the idea. He liked it.

~~~

They didn’t really mean to keep it from Sam. But they wanted them to be private for now. Just something between the two of them. They were small tattoos, but detailed, taking a few hours each. It wasn’t too uncommon for one of the brothers to hunt alone and whenever Dean went, Cas only occasionally stayed around the bunker. They might have lied a little bit, making it seem like the hunt was going on longer than it actually was.

After awhile they just kind of forgot, and since the tattoos were in places that were usually covered by clothes, Sam never saw.

~~~

He decided he’d let the whole marriage thing go for good. Sam contented himself that at least they got together. Until one day, something caught his eye.

They were in their motel room, Cas off in Heaven. They weren’t really sure what they were dealing with. So they decided the FBI approach.

Dean stripped off his jacket before throwing it over the back of the kitchen chair. Walking further into the room he stripped off his other layers. Dean, being the lazy shit that he was, didn’t even bother to change into a white undershirt. Luckily he was wearing a grey one instead of his customary black. As Dean stretched, his sleeve moved up his arm.

In the life of a hunter you had to be vigilant for anything at anytime. So when there’s a black mark on your brother’s arm and you have no idea how it got there, you don’t let that go.

“What’s that.” He dropped his own dress shirt back onto the bed to approach Dean.

“What’s what?” Dean was distractedly scrutinizing his button up for wrinkles.

“This.” He grabbed his brother’s left arm with his. Sam’s right coming up to push the sleeve up further, afraid that he’d find some sort of sigil cursing his brother. He paused when he saw what it was.

It was a black tattoo. An intricate but somehow sturdy looking feather made an X with a gleaming angel blade. It was then that he remembered that Cas’s wings were black, and that the angel blade on his brother’s arm had the same nick in the pommel as the real life version.

Dean jerked his arm away. “Dude.” He said in admonishment.

“What?” It was a beautiful tattoo.

“You’ve never seen a tattoo before? ‘Cause I know you got one, Sammy.” Dean kept his eyes firmly on his bag, digging pointlessly through it.

“What does it mean?”

Dean opened his mouth to tell Sam to shut the hell up when he hesitated. It had sort of been Sam’s interference that lead to them getting the ink in the first place. “It’s Cas, obviously. Neither of us really wanted to get married. Any type of jewelry would be a nuisance, so tattoo. He has one too.” Sam tried to imagine the angel with a tattoo, which led him to thinking of Cas actually sitting there getting the tattoo. He just couldn’t imagine it. “Is that all?” It was less of a question and more of a directive to shut up and change.

Sam thought it was sweet. He didn’t know what Cas’s tattoo looked like but he bet some sort of weapon was involved. And while he didn’t know the personal reason a feather and the angel blade was chosen, he could guess.

Cas’s wings meant safety. Sam usually found his sense of security in his older brother. But Dean didn’t really have that after their father died, maybe even before that. Also, those wings carried them in and out of some sticky situations. That blade also helped out a lot, keeping both of them safe.

If Cas did have a weapon then it was probably for similar reasons. Dean was protective of the ones he loved. Sam could remember when he barely reached Dean’s shoulder in height. Dean’s arm had been around him, his face in his brother’s shoulder. In Dean’s other hand was a gun. Even though both of them were panting harshly, even though he could still hear the shrieks of the monster they were hunting, he had felt so incredibly _safe_.

Sam twitched when a rolled up pair of socks was flung at him. Dean didn’t say anything but his face said everything— _hurry your ass up, we got people to interrog—view._

~~~

Despite his burning curiosity to know what Cas’s tattoo looked like, he never asked. It seemed so personal to them. He wondered where Cas decided to get his. Was it on his shoulder like Dean’s or over his heart? He was disappointed he couldn’t know but left it at that.

He did, however, figure out where it was. Cas was buttoning up his shirt when Sam caught a flash of black on his chest. It seemed a little high for the whole cheesy “over the heart” thing.

~~~

It was maybe a month later, they were in another motel and Dean had gone out for food. It was hot and humid and even Cas took off his coats, and rolled up his sleeves.

Sam caught sight of the corner of the tattoo again as Cas unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

“Hey Cas?” Sam turned in his seat, one arm over the back of his chair.

“Yes Sam?” Indecision gnawed at Sam. He was painfully curious about what Cas’s tattoo was. But he had promised himself he wouldn’t pry. “You wonder what my tattoo is.” Sam mentally flinched at being caught.

“Uh, yeah.” Sam looked away, turning to face his laptop again. “But, you don’t have to tell me!” He rushed to assure.

“There’s no reason to keep it secret. It just...turned out that way.” Sam looked at Cas who had pulled his shirt aside so that the tattoo was visible. It was in shades of black, like Dean’s. The demon killing knife was crossed with Dean’s colt. And Sam was right, it was a little high for being over Cas’s heart.

“It’s beautiful. Is there any significance in the placement of them?” Sam’s eyes flickered up to Cas’s.

“Dean’s is the same place my handprint had been. This,” Cas pointed to the tip of the demon knife. “Is where Dean stabbed me when we first met.” Sam’s eyes widened at that. He didn’t know _that_. “That’s why we chose the knife.” The angel traced the gun. “And Dean’s colt because that’s the weapon he uses most often to protect me.” Dean also used the angel blade if Cas had gotten injured and dropped it.

“And Dean has your angel blade because that’s what you use to protect him.”

“Correct.”

“And the feather represents your wings?”

“Yes, just like the knife represents our first meeting...I displayed my wings to prove to Dean that I was an angel.”

Sam thought it was cute that they incorporated their first meeting into their tattoos. Even if their first meeting included a stabbing.

“Thank you for sharing Cas.” Sam smiled and Cas smiled back.

They both went back to research, Sam on his laptop and Cas in some books.

~~~

They were still disgustingly cute together. It was still odd to see his brother scowling off into the distance but be stroking a thumb over Cas’s as they held hands.

The calming effect they had on one another had been great before they got the tattoos but after?

Cas would be sitting in the library while they discussed their newest mystery. His shoulders up and tense in frustration. Dean would just stand behind him and put a hand on Cas’s chest where the tattoo was. The angel would loosen, shoulders coming down and his head would lean back briefly against Dean’s stomach.

Out in the field, Dean would clench up. Angry and disappointed that the monster got away, the deaths of innocent people weighing on him. And Cas would get in Dean’s personal space and put a hand on his left arm. The arm that held the handprint and now the tattoo. His brother wouldn’t relax, not at that moment, not until the end when they’ve actually stabbed the bastard. But Dean wouldn’t fall so deeply into his own guilt. He’d see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And that, Sam thought, was pretty powerful.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So I don’t really remember what started this fic in my head (since this is the product of several short sessions fit between sleep and school). But perhaps it was that I don’t think that if I got married I’d want a ring so I looked up alternatives but didn’t find much. Plus also my wish to get a tattoo sometime in the future.
> 
> Plus I had spent too much time on Pinterest looking at Destiel fanart and headcannons. 
> 
> Lemme know what you think! It’s my first posted Supernatural fic.
> 
> Title is inspired that their love is deep for one another and the tattoos are “skin deep”. Make sense? (Plus a quote from Cas obviously)
> 
> I hope I kept everyone (mostly) in character. 
> 
> Also, I don’t forsee continuing this but, as always, I’m open to suggestions!


End file.
